


to put away childish things

by mickeysixx



Series: More Than This [2]
Category: The Covenant (2006)
Genre: Angsty Schmoop, Foursome - M/M/M/M, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-02
Updated: 2013-11-04
Packaged: 2017-12-31 06:13:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1028209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mickeysixx/pseuds/mickeysixx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The transition from childhood to adulthood is rarely painless</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Pogue - January 2, 1989

**Author's Note:**

> My, has it really been more than 2 years since I wrote something for this 'verse? If its any consolation I haven't stopped thinking about it and I still have a wealth of ideas and plans for the rest, but the next steps involve Original Characters, which gives me a headache. There is a reason why fanfic is so popular!
> 
> Suggested reading: [Let's Be More Than This](http://archiveofourown.org/works/174069) \- this won't make much sense if you haven't already read that. 
> 
> _"When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things."_ \- Corinthians 13:11

“You gotta stop doing this, man.”

Pogue startled and turned quickly at the voice behind him. His expression settled into a frown as he watched Tyler approach, hands deep in the pockets of a coat that wasn’t his. Pogue turned back to stare out over the bluff, relaxing back into the hood of his car and listening to the soft crunch of Tyler’s footsteps. The night was still; the air was cold enough to freeze but Pogue had long since stopped feeling it. The sudden addition of Tyler’s body heat at his side made him shiver and burrow deeper into the wind breaker he’d grabbed from the backseat.

“Caleb told me I’d probably find you here.” He said, hitching himself up onto the truck, making it bounce. 

Pogue didn’t say anything for a second, let Tyler’s voice wash over him, the truck slow to a gentle rock, “Where’d you leave him?”

“Keeping an eye on Reid, who told me to tell you to stop being a pussy and get back to the party.”

“Asshole,” Pogue muttered affectionately. 

Tyler snorted, “Yeah, well, he’s got a point.” Pogue side-eyed him and the youngest shrugged, “He does. It’s New Years Eve and you’re freezing your ass off out here instead of getting drunk with the rest of our year. What gives?”

New Years Eve was the social event of the year at Spenser. Rumours flew through the halls on who was hosting, who would be invited, who was hooking up with who. This year one of their buddies on the swim team had opened his house after his parents decided to spend Christmas in Australia. Music was pumping from the high-grade speakers, illegal liquor was flowing nicely, and Pogue would have enjoyed himself under normal circumstances. Tonight he had bigger things on his mind than watching people get alcohol poisoning. 

“I told you I didn’t want to go.”

Tyler gave a sigh, “And I told you to suck it up, so sue me.” When Pogue didn’t answer he shook his head, “I hoped it would distract you for a while.”

The dejected note in his voice made Pogue sigh and scrub his numb face with only slightly warmer hands, “I know, man, I get it. Thanks for trying. It just… I can’t think about anything else right now.”

In two days time it would be his eighteenth birthday. He’d finally Ascend. At 7:43pm on January 2nd he’d receive his full share of the Power, and the very thought made his palms sweat. 

It was different when they were kids. At thirteen they were Initiated into this world of limitless potential; given all the strengths but none of the weaknesses. They grew up in the grey area between black and white, seeing how far they could push, how much they could do, how far they could take it. At eighteen they Ascend, are given far more than they can handle, and are expected to control it before it controls them. 

Before it kills them. 

And now there was the Bond. He’d told Caleb he wasn’t going to run from them - and he wasn’t - but it added yet another layer to Ascending that he didn’t really want to think about.

Agitated, Pogue moved off the truck and stood, stuffing his balled hands into his pockets. Tyler watched him pace silently. 

“What are you worried about more: us or Using?”

Pogue stopped. “What?”

Tyler watched him carefully, “Are you stressing because of the bond, because of the draw to us?”

The elder teen made an abortive shrug. “No. Yes. Fuck, Ty, I don’t know.” Tyler waited while Pogue struggled with his thoughts, “Both, I guess. But not for the reasons you think.”

“What, then?”

“I just... shit, I saw a Harvard Prospectus with Caleb’s things earlier.” He said it quick, like he was telling on his brother for doing something bad. Pogue frowned at himself, kicked a tyre aimlessly, “Made me think, you know? About the future and shit. ‘Cause we haven’t got a timeline for this crap, we’re flying blind and I hate that. We don’t know how long we’re gonna get these urges for after we’ve all Ascended. I mean, we’re not all gonna end up at Harvard, ok? How’re we gonna make it work after Spenser?”

He stopped pacing and looked out over the endless landscape, “And then I started thinking about what happened to our fathers. How they dealt with this.” He swallowed, forcing the words out, “I don’t want to end up like they did, Ty. The Power… our family legacy is addiction and an early grave. I don’t want to end up like them.”

“You won’t.”

Pogue turned to him then. The cold had turned his cheeks and nose pink, each calm breath expelled in a fog of white. Even in the dark Pogue could see his eyes were fixed on him, his stare unwavering. 

“They all said that.”

Tyler shrugged, “Maybe. Doesn’t change anything. You think I’m not scared, Pogue? I am. Shitless. Only a fucking idiot wouldn’t be. But I gotta trust that I’ll come out ok, that we’ll be different they they were. Stronger.” Emotion stormed into his eyes then, disturbing the calm depths, “The only thing keeping me going is that belief and our bond. You’re not gonna fail at this, Pogue, because we won’t let you.”

As if the words had been the trigger, Pogue felt a little of the weight that he’d carried since Christmas roll off his shoulders. He came to a stop in front of Tyler, still sitting on the hood of his truck. He didn’t even realise he was reaching out until he saw his fingers extend towards Tyler’s face. Blushing and angry with himself, he stuffed his hand back into his pocket and looked away. 

Tyler rolled his eyes, “Really? After all we’ve done and you’re embarrassed by a little touching?”

His blush deepened and he thanked god that it wasn’t visible in the low light, “You’ve been spending too much time with Reid,” he grumbled. 

The youngest laughed and snagged his jacket, “C’mere loser.”

The first shock of cool lips against his own melted as Tyler drew him in, surrounded him. Power recognised Power instantly and it shivered to life inside him, reaching out and touching, mirroring the actions of his fingers as they mindlessly curled into the wool of what he dimly recognised as Caleb’s coat. It was a sensation he was getting used to, a sensation that would only get stronger after his Ascending. Slowly, surely, warmth slid along his skin, seeping into his bones. It chased away the chill that had settled there days ago and Pogue finally let his tension go with it. Leaning into youngest, he wrapped his arms around his waist and pulled him closer, leaving no room for the cold to reach between them. Strong thighs gripped his hips. 

The muted sounds of explosions teased the edges of his hearing. A hand moved to the back of his neck, cold skin making him hiss and tense. Tyler chuckled against his mouth, pulled back with a soft scraping of his teeth to Pogue’s lower lip. “Happy New Year,” he whispered, breath turning white between them. A long line of heat coasted through him, pulling a quiet moan from his lips without his permission, and even from this distance he could feel Caleb’s satisfaction echoing the wish. 

New Year. He didn’t know if it would be a happy one, but it was certainly going to be different from the last.


	2. Reid - February 22, 1989

Caleb loved his brothers. Always had. Growing up, the four of them had been inseparable, had lived out of each other's pockets summer after summer - even before they were let in on the family secret - and he’d always thought of them as blood kin more than just his friends.

But sometimes he felt like wrapping both hands around their necks and shaking until their teeth rattled.

Even when one currently looked like death warmed over.

Reid gave him the stink eye, “Thought I told you all to fuck off already.”

“Thought I told you to get some rest,” Caleb retorted, “Gonna let me in?”

The blond narrowed his stare, stepped aside to let him pass, “Well if some asshole hadn’t made me answer the freaking door, I would be.”

Caleb took a deep breath and prayed for patience. The blond shuffled passed him as he shrugged out of his coat and threw it over the newel post at the bottom of the stairs. Caleb followed the blond back to the kitchen, mentally cataloguing his physical state. He was moving like an old man; hunched over and tired, almost dragging himself around by force of will alone. Normally pale skin was sickly white, making his blue eyes luminous and the circles under them darker. In reality he knew that he was no worse than when Caleb had seen him that morning but without Pogue and Tyler there it was different. It _felt_ worse.

Reid reached into the refrigerator and pulled out a carton of orange juice. “Well? You didn’t come over here just to watch me do shit, so spill.”

The eldest grabbed a clean glass from the sink and handed it to Reid before he could get one himself, earning him another glare as he accepted it less than graciously. Caleb tried to ignore the way his hand shook as he began to pour.

“I think you should stay with me for a while.”

Reid lifted the glass to his lips and drank, never once taking his eyes from Caleb. When he was done, he answered with one word, “No.”

“Reid-”

“I don’t need you mothering me, Dickwad, I swear-”

“I’m not mothering you, I just think it would be easier if you-”

“Keep an eye on me?” He snorted bitterly, “Think I’m gonna be six feet under a week, huh?”

A sharp pain tore through his heart at the thought, “That’s not what I meant. I want to make sure you’re ok and I can’t do that while you’re here, so-”

“Jesus, Caleb, I’m not a fucking kid anymore. I’m fine, I can take care of myself.”

“Don’t fight me on this, Reid.”

“What, don’t I have a choice now?!” Reid shot back, “This Bond shit doesn’t give you the right to do what you want with us-”

Caleb bristled, “I never said that-”

“Then stop acting like…”

The glass shattered against the tile, orange juice spreading in a messy puddle around their feet. Reid reached out blindly with both hands as his body swayed dangerously and Caleb reacted instantly; moving closer, catching him before he fell.

“Reid!?”

Shaky fingers caught in his t-shirt and with eyes shut, breathing shallow, Reid let Caleb take his weight. “Ok,” he said, voice deceptively light for someone who was a hairs breadth away from collapsing, “Not fine.”

“No shit,” Caleb grumbled, already switching his grip on the blond’s body. When he lifted Reid into his arms, the younger boy groaned and hid his face in his neck.

“Fuck, no, don’t carry me like I’m your fucking bride, man. Leave me some dignity.”

“Sure, I’ll just let you cut your feet open on all that glass out there. I hear blood red goes really well with orange.”

Reid huffed a laugh against his shoulder, “Fuck you.”

Caleb didn’t bother to comment. In fact, he didn’t say a word until they were both stretched out on the couch, Reid’s cheek against his chest and his bare feet stuffed between the couch cushions. His fingers pushed through damp blond hair on autopilot, nails scratching his scalp lightly to get Reid to react, and Caleb didn’t relax until one hand curved around his bicep to anchor on his sleeve. Only then did his stomach muscles unclench and his worry slide down a notch.

“Better?” Reid nodded slowly, rubbing his cheek against Caleb’s t-shirt. “Ok. Don’t scare me like that again.”

“Sorry mom.”

Caleb snorted, “Shut up.”

Reid didn’t rise to it like he normally would have. The fact that he was here at all, letting Caleb coddle him like this, was a testament to how really _not fine_ he was.

“Didn’t mean what I said. About being six feet under.” Reid’s fingers flexed on his bicep, “This freaks me out too, you know? I’m a week off Ascending and I feel like I’ve been pounded on by Mike Tyson. How much worse is it gonna be on the actual night?”

Caleb really didn’t want to think about that. Because if he thought about it, he’d chase it down in his mind until he’d run himself into the ground. His own Ascending wasn’t a walk in the park and he’d been fit and healthy when he’d received his Power that night. Ok, sure, fighting with Chase didn’t do him any favours, but he was still better off than Reid was right now.

He pushed the worry away and shook his head, “It’s gonna be ok.”

“Liar.”

“I can’t think about the alternative, so… don’t. Ok? Just don’t.” he said tightly, his hands fisting into the back of Reid’s borrowed hoodie.

Reid sighed - a hot whoosh of air through the fabric of his t-shirt - and shifted enough to press his lips to the hollow of Caleb’s throat. “‘m sorry.”

The eldest relaxed slowly, went back to petting the boy in his arms, “Two apologies in one day, Garwin? Stop the presses.”

“Don’t push it, Danvers.”

Caleb chuckled and wrapped his legs tighter around the blond in response. They were quiet for a while after that, listening to the soft ticking of the clock on the wall.

“Love you.”

The words were barely audible, half mumbled into his chest, but Caleb heard them anyway. His hands stopped. Part of him wasn’t sure he’d heard right, but Reid’s body felt like rock in his arms; tensed as though he hadn’t meant to let the words slip. And words failed him. Because the last thing he’d expected from Reid was this. He knew it was true, could _feel_ it was true, but saying it meant something different. Saying it meant he acknowledged it.

And as far as he knew Reid had said it to only one person before.

The Power warmed inside him, flowing out of him in a gentle wave. Reid gasped, fingers curling tight into his t-shirt, gripping as the Power washed through him. Time stopped. Then all at once the tension drained out of Reid; his body boneless and pliant and warm. Caleb shivered and wrapped his arms around the blond, held him close. Reid chuckled weakly and pressed his hot face into Caleb’s neck.

“Shut up,” he muttered, embarrassed.

He didn’t bother to reply. Instead he let himself relax and listened to Reid breathe. In a couple of hours Reid’s mom would be home and the boys would start blowing up his cell, demanding to know where he was and if Reid was ok. But right now it was peaceful. It wouldn’t last long but for now it was all they had.


	3. Tyler - July 28, 1989

His skin felt like it was on fire. Sweat rolled down his spine, pooled at the small of his back, making his t-shirt stick. The backs of his knees itched under the denim of his jeans. It had been a mistake to put them on. The key in his hands rattled slightly against the lock as he slid it home, turned. His hands were starting to shake.

The house was thrown into shadow by the moon, but Tyler didn’t need light to guide him. He knew the layout; it was ingrained, muscle memory. He left his keys on the kitchen counter, climbed the stairs up, up, up.

Second floor landing, third door on the right. Tyler paused in front of the ornate door, the pads of his fingers brushing gently against the wood. Everything felt sharper now. Focused.

Alive.

Swallowing thickly, Tyler moved in.

The drapes stirred as he closed the door. The windows had been left wide to catch as much cool air as possible but the heat-wave that had scorched through Ipswich had left the air heavy and thick. Moving required effort, breathing almost hurt. 

He felt the exact moment Caleb woke. A shaft of moonlight fell across the bed, illuminated slick skin and hard muscle and twisted sheets. His mouth watered. Pleasure slipped through him like silk, the Power and heat rising, making him dizzy, making him hard. Caleb turned, half open eyes glittering in the moonlight.

“Tyler?”

His sleep-warm voice rubbed against him like velvet and he was helpless against the quiet moan that fell from his lips. He was halfway to the bed before realising it, stripping off his t-shirt, shucking his jeans on the way. He caught a glimpse of confused dark eyes before Tyler crawled up his body and fused their mouths together in a bone-melting kiss.

The first touch was the trigger. Power surged like a tidal wave inside him, leaving them both gasping in the airless room. It raced across his skin - through his blood, in his mind - and left his body in a current of pure force. Tyler moaned and fell into Caleb once more, pouring everything he had into his lips and teeth and tongue. Caleb was murmuring his name over and over, feverish and urgent, and Tyler wanted more, wanted now, wanted _all_.

The world tilted, spun. Hot breath burned his face like the hands that held him down to the mattress burned his wrists. The moonlight threw stark light on Caleb’s face above him, glinted off eyes sparking with passion and pleasure, confusion and fear.

“What… the _hell_ was that?” His voice was unsteady but his body was anything but. Tyler could feel solid weight pressing down on him; the heaving of his stomach with each fast breath, the hardness trapped between thin sheets, hips firmly between Tyler’s spread thighs. He twisted his wrists back and forth under strong hands and bit his lip when he found he couldn’t move. His dick throbbed. Instead of answering verbally, he shook his head in two quick jerky movements and reared up to kiss him again.

Caleb pulled back, shaking his head as if shaking the haze away, “No, don’t. What’s going on?”

Tyler groaned in frustration and let his head fall back to the bed.

“Power,” he breathed out, letting sensation coil through his system, letting it build layer by layer, “Siren Call.”

Caleb frowned, “What?” Tyler canted his hips, rocked back and forth and teased them both with friction that was simultaneously too much and not enough. Caleb released his wrists to grip his hips instead, stilling him without much effort. “Focus, Tyler.”

The youngest shivered at the growled command and strained to concentrate. “It’s in the Book,” he started, words slow and deliberate, “Didn’t think it was important, just another riddle. Last one Ascends, then Power draws Power. It’s called the Siren Call.” He licked his lips, shook his head, “We can’t resist it.”

He’d studied the book almost non-stop since Pogue’s Ascending, painstakingly pulling together anything he could find on the effects of the Power and the Bond after Ascending. A week before his own birthday he came across the Siren Call. _“When the last Son Ascends, Power will call Power, and he will take his rightful place alongside his brethren.”_ The vague words hadn’t meant much to him then, but waking up tonight - just hours after he’d been screaming in agony on the stone floor of the Vaults - he knew exactly what it meant.

Need; an urgent and unbearable need to have and take and give.

Caleb’s frown deepened, “Can’t resist _what_?”

But the only answer he got was a soft moan. Twin brushes of Power caressed them, answering the wordless call. Caleb made a soft sound in the back of his throat, head dropping forward as he shuddered, and Tyler reached out, curled his hand around Caleb’s neck and pulled him into his mouth again. He used his tongue to explain, his fingers to draw the diagrams on Caleb’s skin, telling him without words what it meant.

That was how Reid and Pogue found them ten minutes later; so tangled up in each other that they looked like one entity.

“Baby boy trippin’ already?” The surprise was evident in his voice under the leering tone, “That’s gotta be a record, right?”

Pogue chuckled, closed the door, “Didn’t know we were keeping score, Garwin.”

The smirk he would have thrown at Pogue faltered with the quiet burst of Power that came from Tyler. The youngest pulled away from Caleb’s mouth, let him suck kisses against his neck while he panted. With eyes at half-mast, he stared at the other two across the room until they moved towards them, losing clothes and inhibitions fast in favour of skin and sweat.

All thoughts of scores and records disappeared under the sluggish haze of heat and pleasure. Three pairs of hands touched him, stroked him, gripped and pushed him. Fingers and mouths left dark bruises on pale skin. Hushed murmurs and silky moans flowed over him like water and Tyler drowned in it. They twisted and turned him until he was straddling Caleb’s hips, and while Pogue’s blunt fingers opened him up, Reid kissed him slow and dirty, swallowing hitched moans with a smirk. A warm hand jerked him lazily, another ran the length of his torso from neck to cock and back again. Tyler whimpered; a broken noise that was almost lost on Reid’s tongue.

And when they guided him back and down, down, down, Tyler swore he’d never felt anything so good in his life. Caleb’s dick filled him inch by agonising inch until he sat fully in the cradle of his hips. Muscles tensed and jumped under his hands and the four of them were still for what seemed like forever until Pogue’s large hands gripped his hips and forced him to move.

Tyler opened his eyes, not realising that he’d closed them, to see Reid settle down beside Caleb. He watched as Caleb turned to him, curled an arm up and drew him to his mouth. He watched as Reid reached up for the same hand, brought it down to his cock, and urged him to jerk him off. Pogue cursed into his ear, ran his tongue from shoulder blade to nape, bit down. His head fell back on a whine. Each deliberate movement of his hips was punctuated by soft groans and harsh breathing, accompanied by the wet slide of tongue and cock, and Tyler gave himself over to it willingly.

But the Power wouldn’t let them keep their steady pace. This wasn’t going to be a night of drawn out, easy fucking. Somewhere deep in Tyler’s mind he knew what was coming next. He could feel the pull, the beat of his heart gaining momentum. Need was a fire that simmered in bones, turned to flames in his blood, became an inferno in his heart. Sweat blinded him, heat pressed in on all sides, and part of him wondered if he’d make it out alive.

Another part wondered why he cared.

Faster and faster. Whatever pace they’d once had was gone; pushed aside in urgency. One hand had Caleb’s tense shoulder in a bruising grip, the other was held tight by Reid. Filthy encouragements from Pogue urged him on more than the hands on his hips. He’d gone beyond direction now. Pure instinct drove him to ride Caleb’s dick hard and fast until he was rutting and keening like an animal. It was too much, too fast; he was going to burst with it, fly apart at the seams. Thigh muscles screamed with his effort but the Power and pleasure pushed him through it, built higher and higher until the noise in his head was a nothing but a desperate howl.

Time stopped; a split second that went on forever and not long enough. The world stopped spinning and they clung to the edge of oblivion, reaching out for the fall.

Then fire burned across black eyes and Tyler screamed his release into the dark. Power rose up, bright and hot like a solar flare, and wrapped around them like vines. Unadulterated pleasure reverberated between lines of unbreakable connection, bouncing around their bodies like electric current, narrowing their world to heat and sweat and sex. Muscles burned with strain, fingers gouged deep into flesh and left bruises and blood in their wake. They were being destroyed and rebuilt through sex and magic and love and the pain was so sweet, so beautiful that Tyler never wanted it to end.

And suddenly it was over. He swayed forward, gulped air like he was dying. Both arms shook as he braced himself above Caleb, hips rolling to wring every last pulse out of his cock. Trembling hands sought out his hips, made him stop, made him whimper. A burning hot mouth slicked messy kisses along his shoulder, neck, breathing words like “fuck” and “beautiful” and “forever” into his skin. Hands burned like brands on his body; their shaking touches coaxing him down to earth.

Gentle fingers brushed over his cheek, making him dimly aware of the wetness on them. A thumb pressed to his lips Tyler blindly flicked his tongue out, licked his lip and the thumb clean, rolled the taste of his brothers around his mouth. A fond smile stretched Caleb’s lips when he opened his eyes.

“Hey.” Caleb’s sounded like torn silk and rough sex. His thumb drifted back and forth over his cheek, “You ok, baby boy?”

Words clogged in his throat but he couldn’t make his mouth moved to form them. The ability to speak had left him some time ago. The most he could do was nod.

Strong arms slipped around his waist from behind, pulled him smoothly to Caleb’s free side. Cramped muscles protested the movement and his hiss of discomfort was quick and automatic. But a warm body settled in close behind him, soothed the pain with his hands until he'd relaxed, boneless and sated between them. The air was thick with the smell of sex and spent Power. Tyler breathed it in, bathed in it, and finally let the darkness pull him down.

Someone pressed a kiss into his hair and it was the last thing Tyler felt before sleep claimed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there it is... :D Hope you liked it! There's more being plotted, I swear. It's just gonna take a while.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
